The conclusions of a Danish report on female as opposed to male longevity, suggest that an andropausal reduction in the hormone testosterone in men in mid-life is the main reason why males become gradually weaker than females in later life.

According to researchers Tom Skyhøj Olsen and Klaus Kaae Andersen, the fact that women live longer than men has more to do with a developing male physical inferiority, than female superiority.

“Our findings dispute the effects of female sex hormones as the underlying cause of female survival superiority over men. Instead we propose that the progressive deficiency of male sex hormones (testosterone) beginning in men in middle age is the underlying cause of the gap in survival rates between men and women,” the two say in a survey in Gender Medicine.

“Accordingly the female survival advantage is rooted in male inferiority rather than innate female superiority,” the conclusions of the report say.

“We do realise that not everyone agrees that men have an andropause. But our research suggests, in fact, that they do – and that it is a sort of boundary between their biologically strong and weak period,” says Frederiksberg Hospital Apoplexy Department Chief Physician Tom Skyhøj Olsen.

The two men have investigated the survival of some 40,000 Danish men and women following brain haemorrhages. Results showed that prior to the age of 50, men survived apoplexy better than women. After the age of 50, however, women survived better than men.

“Once men and women have passed the menopause/andropause it is significant that women are better at surviving the effects of apoplexy – and other serious illnesses - than men,” says Skyhøj Olsen.

“Hitherto when there has been talk of an andropause, it has been a question a gradual weakening of sexual desire, a weakening of musclepower, a tendency to abdominal fat, tiredness and depression,” he says.

“Our result, that men in their 50s go from being the biologically strong to becoming the weaker sex, is a completely new discovery,” Skyhøj Olsen says.

Testosterone
Although the survey cannot provide reasons for the change in men after the andropause, researchers suggest that a gradual reduction in testosterone may play a role.

“We don’t know whether it would help middle-aged men and older men to be given testosterone if they become seriously ill. But the result of our survey will undoubtedly raise speculations in that direction,” Skyhøj Olsen says.